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Friday, May 12, 2017

Curried Pumpkin Red Lentil Soup

I am clearly not very good at writing regularly! I think Facebook is my biggest downfall to accomplishing what I need and want to. Finding balance in life is an ongoing battle for me.

I wrote last time about my daughter and I starting on the Blood Type Diet for Type A's and promised to update you on how we are doing. Well, I have to admit we have not been 100% following the diet. In fact, there are days that I fail miserably as I have not been good at meal planning. I have continued to notice that digestion, pain, and inflammation levels improve when I stick to the diet, and when I slip and eat things I shouldn't digestive complaints, pain, and inflammation increase again. I never thought potatoes would be as difficult to eliminate as they have been! They have been the hardest thing to get rid of. DD has had a return of dark circles, digestive issues, and generally not feeling well when she cheats. I am still determined to shift all the way to the BTD, but it's a process, I suppose. I have to adjust recipes and find some new ones. Oh! My husband and oldest son both tested themselves, and they are both Type A. That sure keeps things easier for me. Good thing, too! I'm having a hard enough time transitioning to just Type A diet and making some allowances for our one Type O son (mostly he is responsible for feeding himself, as he is an adult), without having to add in Type B like my husband thought. We have one child left to test. Since 5/6 have tested to be Type A, the chances are high our 7th family member is Type A, also.

Today I tried a new recipe. It has been a long time since I have come up with a recipe to share, but this one was really good. Our 4yo son even loved it. He has some sensory issues that cause him to be a picky eater, so I was very surprised when he agreed to try this soup. He insisted on closing his eyes before taking a bite, and he kept his eyes shut while he slowly chewed. Suddenly he popped his eyes open in shock and exclaimed, "This soup is GOOD!" He then insisted on grabbing the bowl and spoon from me and then fed himself 3 bowls of it! I guess this is one recipe I will want to make again. :-)

Please note that I am the kind of person who just throws stuff together and rarely measures anything. I am trying to the best of my ability to change that when I share recipes. I am including some measurements, but some things I did not measure and just added to our individual taste. When I make this recipe again, I will try to pay more attention and measure everything, however this recipe is such that things can be changed whenever you want. Instead of corn, you could add carrots. Instead of curry powder, you could add paprika and cumin. There are many combinations that would be good. Just play around with stuff and learn what flavors you like! Also, all ingredients I used were organic and GMO Free. I used my Instant Pot on the slow cooker setting. Next time I will experiment with making it on the pressure cooker "Manual" setting and will update this when I figure it out. I didn't know I was going to share this recipe until after it was eaten, so I have no pictures tonight. I will take some next time. Also, this gave us enough for about 6-8 adult servings.

I threw everything into my Instant Pot and put it on the "Slow Cooker" setting. It was done after about 3-3 1/2 hours. It could easily be cooked for 4 hours. This would be comparable to cooking in any crock pot on "High" for 4 hours. I would imagine if you set a crock pot on "Low," it would be done around 8 hours.

If you decide to make this with regular brown rice instead of par-boiled, you will need to add a little more broth.

This recipe is good for Type A and is not good for Type O. I mention this because if you've seen my one son is Type O and think that I made this for him, too, you would be mistaken. I didn't really consider him when I made this as he usually doesn't eat the vegetarian dishes I make. He wants beef! Good thing he knows how to cook!